[Lardman]

My lot have discovered that by swinging the feeder (currently hanging from the run roof 18inches off the ground on a coat hanger) the food tips out.

They dont seem to bother with 90% of the pellets on the floor either, with the weather as it is, everything is turning to a mush and I'm worried will the food will go moldy or attract unwanted visitors, not to mention its a complete waste of food.

I could try and tether the bottom of the feeder but it really would by a pain, has anyone come across a similar problem ? is the feeder too high?

[compostqueen]

Mine is fixed but one hen seems only to want to scrape all the pellets out onto the floor  :evil:

tis a hen thing  

[GrannieAnnie]

Hi Lardman, ours do that all the time, but we keep our feeders in the house so that if it does tip it doesn't get wet and go mouldy, as that is the way to botulism I think.  But our feeders I think were actually too low, but I read somewhere if you put them chest high they don't do it.  Since I raised them that little bit, they don't seem to tip it.  What ours were doing was trying to stand on the rim of the feeders, but our feeders have an anti scratch ring so they can't scratch it out either.

Hope that makes sense, as the only person who usually understands me is ME!!!! lol

[Lardman]

Right - a little more info on what is actually happening.

Dinner seems to constantly walk clockwise around the feed whilst feeding, her neck and flank is pushing against the feeder rim tilting it and spilling the pellets. Im thinking this actually means that the feed is too low?

Makes perfect sense to me GrannieAnne -the run and therefore the food is covered but its horrible out there and the driving rain has made the run floor damp.

It seem to be a new idea, they didn't used to spill the food. I'd like to break them of the habit before it becomes a problem.  I'd also like to stop them laughing at me when Im cleaning out the coop..  

[Spadefighter]

Hi, we hang our feeder at hen chest height with an old grill pan underneath. I think they prefer eating from the floor as they seem to tip up the hopper every single day, but at least we can remove the pan at night, rather than leaving it like a rat McDonalds!

[poultrygeist]

Ours is hanging at about chest height from about 18-24" and there's hardly any waste.
Can you adjust the amount of pellets feeding through ?

I keep the 'tray' about half full which gives a generous amount of rim to retain the feed. Plus there's a built-in anti-scratch ring that makes them a bit less messy.

Rob

[Lardman]

Ours is hanging at about chest height from about 18-24" and there's hardly any waste.
Can you adjust the amount of pellets feeding through ?

I think this is part of the problem - as she walks around the feeder she turns it, this opens the hopper up allowing more food into the tray and therefore the floor.

I'll have a rummage around in the garage and see if I can find a nylock nut or at least another nut to ack as a lock nut. Hopefully will stop it undoing. I've also moved it closer to a wall hopefully this will stop her walking around it.

I've used 5Kgs of food in a fortnight  :shock: So around 1/2 has gone on the floor  :cry:

[poultrygeist]

They're not as daft as we sometimes think !  

Good luck with it.

Rob